Difference Between HTC One V and HTC Rhyme

We picture the smartphone market as a vivid and legendary place that is filled with high-end smartphones that get replaced every day. That is indeed true for a certain cross section of the market, but when we take the market as a whole and look at the macro view, the reality is far from that. Those smartphones that get replaced comes down to the next layer. We can visualize the smartphone market as a pyramid and the legendary place we imagine in the market is the tip of the iceberg. There are a number of levels and an enormous amount of smartphones below that level. Smartphone in all those levels gets replaced by either smartphones from a level above or a smartphone that comes straight from the production plant. At the WMC 2012, HTC implied that they are operational in all the levels of the pyramid by introducing three HTC One series smartphones that fall into the top, bottom and middle. We talked about the top (HTC One X) and mid-level (HTC One S) smartphones and now we are going to talk about the bottom level, as well. HTC One V is essentially representing the bottom level of the pyramid although it can be considered to be at the top of the bottom level.

Another HTC product that falls into the same category is HTC Rhyme. This was released sometime back, but we can compare it with HTC One V since it used to be somewhat a middle class phone back in the days. It can be considered as a smartphone that has been demoted from an upper layer to the bottom layer. Let’s check out the features offered by these smartphones from the upper part of the bottom layer in the smartphone pyramid.

HTC One V

HTC One V is a basic smart phone that is meant to be affordable; thus, it has some cropped down specs. For starters, the processor is only clocked at 1GHz, and it is only a single core processor. It works with 512MB of RAM and fortunately, it comes runs on Android OS v4.0 ICS, which is the most recent and the best version of Android. HTC was able to convince us that One V would handle ICS rather well and smoothly, but we didn’t see many consumers who were interested in that. This may be because the consumers come to an event like WMC to admire the tip of the iceberg and not the bottom of it. HTC One V has 3.7 inches TFT capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 252ppi. It is rather small and thin with dimensions of 120.3 x 59.7mm / 9.2mm, but some people may not like the design since it has a chin like ledge at the bottom although HTC identifies it as an ergonomic design.

It has 4GB of internal storage with the option to be expanded up to 32GB using a microSD card. HTC One V defines its connectivity through HSDPA and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. It can act as a wi-fi hotspot to share your internet connection, but it doesn’t seem that HTC included DLNA with this handset, so you might miss streaming rich media content directly from your handset wirelessly. One V has 5MP camera that has autofocus and LED flash, and it can capture 720p videos. It is somewhat disappointing to see that HTC hasn’t included a front camera for this device. However, like HTC One X and HTC One S, this too has Beats Audio by Dr.Dre for experiencing rich, authentic sound. Apart from these general specs, it has 1500mAh battery that may serve you for 6-7 hours straight from one charge.

HTC Rhyme

HTC Rhyme is the perfect companion for HTC V. It has 3.7 inches S-LCD capacitive touchscreen featuring a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels at a pixel density of 252ppi. The handset is powered by 1GHz Scorpion single core processor on top of Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon chipset with Adreno 205 GPU and 768MB of RAM. It runs on Android OS v2.3.4 Gingerbread with no plans of an upgrade to v4.0 ICS. It has 4GB of internal storage with the option to expand it using a microSD card up to 32GB. It has a simple intuitive design and the HTC Sense UI v3.5 in it. HTC Rhyme has variants of Clearwater, Hourglass and Plum in color.

The handset has 5MP camera that has autofocus and LED flash with geo tagging and it can also capture 720p videos. Unlike in One V, HTC has included a front camera in Rhyme which would be beneficial for the purpose of conference calling. As usual, the connectivity is defined by HSDPA and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n. Rhyme has the ability to host a wi-fi hotspot, and it can also stream rich media content directly from your handset to your Smart TV wirelessly using DLNA. As an additional feature, Rhyme includes an Active noise cancellation mic. In terms of browsing, HTML 5 and Flash content are supported, although not in full. The standard 1600mAh battery promises a talk time of 10 hours and 20 minutes.

A Brief Comparison of HTC One V vs HTC Rhyme

• HTC One V is powered by 1GHz single core processor with 512MB of RAM, while HTC Rhyme is powered by 1GHz Scorpion single core processor on top of Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and 768MB of RAM.

• HTC One V has a chin like ledge at the bottom while HTC Rhyme comes as a straight bar design.

• HTC One V doesn’t have a secondary camera, while HTC Rhyme has a secondary camera for video conferencing.

• HTC One V has Beats audio system, while it is not there in HTC Rhyme it has stylish accessories.

Conclusion

As much as I’d like to dwell upon what’s the best smartphone among these two, the answer wouldn’t really matter because both of them fall head to head at the same line. The only difference I can pick on is the operating system where you would get the ICS with HTC One V and have to satisfy with Gingerbread with HTC Rhyme. Of course, this is only the case by legal terms, you can easily root your smartphone and boot up with a ICS ROM if you have enough knowledge about surfing in the correct websites. That been said, the differentiating factor would be the ergonomics and the design of these two phones where One V is at a disadvantage because of the chin like design in my point of view but, of course, this can change if you like the chin. Also, One V has Beats audio integrated for rich sound. So, the decision is rolled towards you again, and it solely depends on your preference this time.